Indian Railways plans to handover e-ticketing operations to CRIS

Indian Railways is planning to directly undertake e-ticketing operations from its subsidiary Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), after recently taking over the catering services in trains. This decision has been taken due to mismanagement of e-ticketing by IRCTC as shown by continuous complaints of touts buying tickets in fictitious names, leading to unavailability of seats to legitimate customers.

According to a report in Financial Express, the Indian Railways is looking at handing over the task of e-ticketing to Centre for Railways Information Systems (CRIS), the subsidiary that had developed the software for internet reservation of train tickets. In the first move towards the transfer, the Railway Board has asked CRIS to plan for expansion in the time period during which e-tickets can be bought.

As of now, e-ticketing can be done for a limited period of the day. “We want to facilitate e-ticketing round the clock. We have planned to extend this facility from 12:01 am till 11:30 pm and to keep half an hour for maintenance work,” said a senior official of Rail Bhawan.